


To Help

by wildeisms



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Foster Family, CM Family Verse, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-08-07 18:51:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7725835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildeisms/pseuds/wildeisms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abandoned by his partner and left with five young children, Aaron Hotchner is struggling more than he lets on. David Rossi ensures that he isn't as alone as he feels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Even when you no longer work for the FBI, you tend to be in the know. At least, that is what David Rossi found to be true. So naturally, the news of Jason Gideon quitting his job and disappearing to who knows where reached him within a month of the event.

They had never been exactly close, but he had known the man well enough, and met his family too. His family, who were no doubt suffering the most from it all. Aaron Hotchner, the pretty prosecutor who had always caused Dave to feel the slightest bit of envy towards Gideon, was now stuck with a pretty damn big family and every associated struggle, and no partner to help with a single bit of it. If the FBI didn’t know where he was, Dave highly doubted he was paying child support.

Despite his many marriages and even greater number of partners, children had never really been something Dave had thought about. One, surely, would be hard work, but four? Or was it five? He couldn’t quite remember. If Aaron was as overwhelmed as Dave imagined he might be, he wasn’t entirely sure if even he would be able to remember how many children he had.

Dave didn’t know quite when he made the decision to visit the Hotchner household. He supposed he had made it the moment he had heard the news, and it was only a matter of when he would drop by. He’d spent the day cooking up batches of easily freezable meals that would hopefully be appreciated by children as much as they were by as those with more sophisticated palettes, and by late afternoon, he had amassed enough to feed a small army. Which, in a way, it would. He considered bringing flowers for a while, but decided against it. He was trying to support Aaron, not romance him. Although, if a little bit of creative comforting was required, who was he to say no?

He caught himself before he could pursue this interesting train of thought too far. Were people even allowed to think that way about dads, or the ex partner of an ex work colleague for that matter?

But even with his already developed interest, Dave had to admit it: there was not much to find sexy about the Aaron who opened the door to him. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in days, his hair was all over the place, he only had one sock on and… yes, that looked like sick on his shirt. Sick which most likely belonged to the sniffling baby he was bouncing on his hip. And, worst of all, he didn’t look even remotely happy to see Dave. If anything, he looked like he might cry, and not out of happiness.

“Hi, listen Dave, Jason isn’t here and I don’t know where he is, I’m sorry,” he said before Dave could even open his mouth.

He went to speak again, but this time was cut off by another child’s crying and a boy’s shout from upstairs. “Dad! Penny fell down!”

Aaron looked between the baby, Dave and the top of the stairs, then gave Dave a pleading look. “Can you hold him, just for a moment?” he asked desperately.

“Sure, I got him,” Dave agreed, and what seemed like nanoseconds later, he was holding a baby. A baby who had decided that the absence of his father, who was dashing off upstairs, was the end of the world, and a cause for loud, miserable tears. “Hey, little man. It’s okay, no need to cry…”

He was, apparently, not in agreement on that particular point, however. His cries were just as insistent, and Dave wasn’t sure he even knew how to hold him properly. But he had at least achieved the task he’d been set, and the look on Aaron’s face when he came back down, having quietened the child - Penny, the boy had said - upstairs said that this was accomplishment enough.

“I’m so sorry,” he sighed, taking the baby back and holding him close. He quietened a little, producing more whimpers than sobs. “It’s a bit crazy round here at the moment. What with- well.” He grimaced.

“Aaron, it’s fine. I figured things would be a little crazy. That’s why I’m here, actually. I thought I’d bring round a bit of home cooking, give you one less thing to worry about, you know?”

Aaron looked like he was going to cry again, but this time it was out of gratitude rather than exhausted, miserable frustration. “Dave, thank you… You really didn’t have to do that.”

He shrugged and gave him a little smile. “Oh yeah? When did you last eat a decent meal?”

Aaron cracked a smile back and seemed to ponder this. “Does children’s cereal count?”

“Mm… I think that’s a no on that one.”

“Too long ago, then.”

“Exactly.”

He managed a little laugh, even with the baby still crying in his arms, albeit much quieter.

“How do you do that?” Dave asked, shaking his head in amazement.

“We adopted him five months ago, and I don’t think we’ve had a single day without tears since then. I just… I don’t know what it is, he’s had so many doctor’s appointments but we can’t find anything wrong, he just… cries. I don’t know why and I don’t know how to fix it, and it’s only got worse since Jason left. He was so good at calming Spence down. And now he’s sick so it’s worse than ever.” Aaron sighed deeply and kissed the boy’s head absently. “Sorry, I’m dumping all this on you.”

Dave couldn’t help wondering how Aaron was coping with all this at once, and it suddenly became rather impressive that Aaron was alert, sober and dressed. He wondered if he’d even had time to feel the loss of his partner yet, or if he had simply been too overwhelmed. “It’s fine, honestly. If you ever just want to talk, I really don’t mind,” he promised, and Aaron smiled again.

“Thank you. Do you want to come in properly? I can get you a drink, if you’d like?”

“Yeah, I think I’d like that.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this fic has been changed because I decided I didn't like the old one anymore, but the content is all the same.

The efficiency and speed with which Aaron settled a now calmer Spencer in a high chair and provided two cups of coffee suggested that a pot of the stuff had become a permanent fixture in his house, and who could blame him?

“Thanks,” Dave said as he took a mug and sipped the piping hot drink. “Would I be right in saying you’re living on this stuff even more than usual?”

“What gave it away?” Aaron asked, the corner of his lip twitching slightly.

“Mm, toss up between the industrial sized pot, whiny baby, and common sense.”

This time, Aaron actually laughed. “I think most parents have at least some level of caffeine addiction, so it isn’t just me. Although I think it has gotten a little worse since… Well. I’ve been relatively lucky so far, I’ve got enough leave to not have to think about work for a while. I wouldn’t have time to sleep at all if I had to go into the office.”

The fact he was even trying to find a bright side was, quite frankly, astounding. “How did you manage it, when Jason was away?”

“Between us, we had enough spare money for a nanny. Alex was here during the day, while I was working, and I was home in the evenings. I don’t think there was ever a time that both Jason and I were away overnight. But now… She charges a lot for five, and she should do, but I’m not sure I can cover that and everything else now.”

Dave felt an ache in his heart as he looked at Aaron and thought of his own life. He hadn’t had to think about money like that in a long time. Generally, if he wanted something, he could get it, what with his nicely sized pension and his book sales. “If you need it-”

Aaron cut across him. “I don’t want to take your money, Dave.”

“You didn’t even let me finish.”

“But that was what you were going to say.”

“All I’m saying is I could-”

“It’s not right. We know each other through my partner - ex-partner now, I suppose - and I don’t think you’ve even met any of my kids, apart from Spencer.”

“So?”

“So, I don’t feel right letting you do this. Generosity is one thing, and I appreciate that, but funding us? There are families much worse off than mine that manage.”

Dave knew a pointless argument when he saw one. Aaron was proud, stubborn and a lawyer, a combination that he simply couldn’t win against. At least not in a single discussion. “If you change your mind, just let me know.”

“Thank you, Dave. I do appreciate the sentiment.”

“Daddy, can I have a cookie?” A small girl with blonde hair held back in a ponytail had entered the room, and was giving Aaron a look that she must have crafted in front of a mirror to achieve the perfect mix of innocently sweet and pleading.

“What do we say when we want something?”

“Please?” the girl added with a hopeful little smile.

Aaron seemed to consider for a second, then seemed to decide that it was simply impossible to say no and opened up a cupboard, extracting a large jar. “Okay, but just one. It’ll be dinner time soon,” he said as he crouched down to allow her to select one.

“Yay! Thank you, Daddy! Who is your friend?”

“This is Dave, he used to work with Daddy Jason.” There was a slight hitch in his voice at the mention of his partner’s name, but the girl didn’t seem to detect it.

She looked up at Dave and smiled brightly. “Hi Dave, I’m Jennifer but if you’re Daddy’s friend then you can call me JJ because that’s what my friends call me, and if you’re Daddy’s friend then you’re my friend too,” she announced, and Dave - surprising himself - warmed to her immediately.

“It’s nice to meet you, JJ,” he replied, only slightly bemused by how someone so small could take control of a situation so completely.

“Would you like to play with me and Emily?” she asked. “We’re playing princess knights!”

“Princess knights?” he repeated, his eyebrows raised in complete confusion.

“Yeah! We’re princesses who are also knights and we have to stop the bad guys from destroying our kingdom and also we have swords and a unicorn!”

“Be careful with your swords, and if you need to have a big battle, do it in the garden,” Aaron told her, as if she had just described something completely normal. Maybe this was how all kids played.

“Okay, Daddy. You can play too if you want.”

“I’m going to feed Spencer, but you go and have fun.”

“Okay. Are you playing?” she asked, turning her wide eyes on Dave again, and moments later, he found himself somehow being dragged by the hand into a playroom which looked like an explosion had recently gone off inside of it. There were toys everywhere, and in the centre of it all was another girl, taller and seemingly a little older than JJ, with dark hair and a fierce expression as she waved around a foam sword, slashing and stabbing at an imaginary enemy.

When she saw Dave, she stopped abruptly and appeared much smaller all of a sudden, her fierceness disappearing completely.

“Em, this is Dave and he’s a friend of Daddy’s so he’s my friend now too and he said he’d play!”

“But it was _our_ game,” the girl - Emily, presumably - whined, her voice small and her brow furrowed.

“But he’s a friend!” JJ insisted. “We have to play with our friends.”

“I don’t mind if you two want to play alone,” Dave interjected, desperate to resolve the conflict before he ended up causing even more problems for Aaron to deal with. But it seemed like it was already too late. Emily dropped her sword and sat down in the middle of the room in a sulk, and JJ’s eyes filled with tears.

“Emily,” she whined, moving over to sit by her sister. “Are you mad at me?”

“Maybe,” she mumbled.

“I don’t want you to be mad!”

“I don’t want to share our special games!”

“Why not?”

Emily paused, trying to come up with an answer. When she seemed to give up on that, she simply got to her feet and looked as serious as a small child is able to. “I’m going to play with Derek now,” she announced, and JJ promptly burst into tears.

Panicking, Dave rushed over to the pair of them and put an uncertain hand on JJ’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay,” he reassured her. Emily, meanwhile, was rooted to the spot with an expression that even he, with all his years of profiling experience, couldn’t quite read.

“Don’t cry,” she said uncertainly, sounding almost as uncomfortable as Dave felt.

“I j-j-just w-wanted to h-have a n-n-new friend!” JJ sobbed, pulling her knees up to her chest.

At that moment, Aaron appeared in the doorway, surveying the scene with sharp eyes before joining the crowd around JJ. He scooped her up in his arms and held her to his chest while she held on tight, sobbing all the while. While he was obviously concerned, it seemed as though tears were a common occurrence in the Hotchner household. “Shh, it’s okay,” he soothed. “What happened?”

“Em d-d-didn’t w-want to sh-share the g-g-game ‘nd now she w-w-won’t play with me a-at all and I d-don’t have any f-friends!” JJ choked out.

“I’m still your friend!” Emily piped up indignantly. “I’m just not his friend!” She pointed at Dave, and he wasn’t sure whether he should feel insulted or not.

Aaron sighed deeply. “Why don’t you both take a little break, okay? We can have a nap and do some quiet, alone playing until dinner time, then we can talk about how we’d all like to play afterwards,” he suggested, and Emily scowled, but walked off, presumably to her room.

JJ, however, was still clinging to her father. “I don’t like alone playing,” she whimpered, and Aaron brushed some loose hair out of her face and wiped her eyes.

“Yes you do, sweetheart. You like doing your drawings, don’t you?” She nodded, and Aaron gave her a gentle smile. “Why don’t you do a drawing for Emily and another drawing for Dave, and you can show them at dinner?”

“And then they’ll still be my friends?” she asked hopefully.

“JJ, they’ll be your friends either way. I promise.”

She managed a small smile at that, and let her father put her down so she could leave too.

“Wow,” Dave said after a moment’s silence. “That was one of the most masterful cases of de-escalation I’ve ever seen, and I was in the FBI.”

A faint smile crossed Aaron’s face at that, but he shrugged. “It’s part of being a parent, particularly to these kids. They’ve just lost a father, and none of them had the best lives before coming here. Emily doesn’t like being open around strangers, but JJ is terrified of people not liking her. It makes an, um, interesting combination sometimes. But they’ve all had bad experiences, so you can’t blame them.”

“I don’t mean to pry, but…” Dave trailed off, not sure if it was polite to ask, particularly when he didn’t actually know the family that well.

“Emily was moved around a lot in different children’s homes, and she’s used to being defensive. JJ was given up by her birth parents, and then given up again by her first foster family. Our- My kids are all the ones who needed homes most.”

“So all of them have stories like that?”

“Essentially, yes. There is more to it, with JJ and Emily too, but I don’t… I don’t want you to pity them too much. They’re being looked after now, I love them, and that’s what counts.”

“Of course.” Dave nodded, but he still couldn’t help feeling a spark of curiosity when it came to these kids.


	3. Chapter 3

By the time dinner was ready, Dave had already reached the conclusion that Aaron Hotchner was not actually human. He was obviously some kind of super-powered being with endless supplies of patience and energy to be dealing with all these kids. The moment one of them was happy and settled, another always seemed to need something, in a never-ending tornado of needs and wants and whining. Dear God, the whining. Spencer was the worst for it, although that was understandable, given his age. But all the same, Dave couldn‘t see why anyone would find babies cute. And then, of course, getting them to all come to the table and eat what they were given was its own battle.

“Okay guys, dinner’s ready!” Aaron called, but all that he got in response was an unintelligible squeal from Spencer, who was already in his high chair and seemingly wearing half of his dinner. “Come on!”

The first to appear in the dining room was JJ, clutching at a sheet of paper. “I made this for you, Dave!” she said excitedly and thrust the picture at him. It was certainly very brightly coloured, but he couldn’t tell you exactly what it was supposed to be. Yet he had a feeling that saying so would be tactless. But fortunately, she solved that particular issue without prompting “It’s you riding a pink zebra and the zebra’s magic and that’s why she’s pink!”

He could maybe see it, if he squinted and forgot everything he knew about human and zebra proportions. But again, saying so would be tactless. “Aw thank you, JJ!” he said instead. “I love it.” And in a weird way, he did. It was sweet of her, really.

“Right, JJ, I’ve got your juice out, so you come and sit here while I round up your brother and sisters,” Aaron said, but JJ frowned.

“But I need to pee!”

“Okay, go to the bathroom, then come back here and sit down,” he sighed, then raised his voice again. “Derek! Emily! Penelope! Come on, please!”

“Coming!” Emily’s voice came from somewhere upstairs, but from the look on Aaron’s face, Dave could guess that that didn’t mean a whole lot coming from her.

“Right, I’m going to go and get Derek and Penelope if they’re not going to reply to me. I’ll be back in a second, if you want to sit down.” And with that, he left the room in search of the rest of his children. When he returned, he had a young girl on his hip, also blonde but perhaps a little younger than JJ, who had almost certainly selected her own accessories, opting for a combination of fairy wings, a striped scarf, a glittery tiara and bright red rain boots. “Penny, this is Dave. He’s a friend, and he made our dinner today. Dave, this is Penelope.”

“Hey, Penelope,” he said with a small wave, and she waved back shyly.

“And this- Oh, for God’s sake, where’s Derek?” he asked with a frustrated groan.

“I was just getting my phone,” a tall, black boy said as he entered the room. “Hey, little man,” he added to Spencer as he passed, and the baby cooed happily in response.

“Der!” he squeaked, then descended into unintelligible babbling, but Derek grinned at him all the same.

“Do you need your phone at the dinner table?” Aaron asked with a raised eyebrow as he set Penelope down in her seat.

“Jason always had his phone at the dinner table.”

At the mention of Gideon, Aaron seemed to tense up. “That was in case an urgent case came in,” he replied coolly, but Derek shrugged.

“I have it now, does it really matter? Hey, this actually smells good,” he added as he looked over the table. “Did you make this?”

“No, Dave did. He used to work with… With the FBI.”

“Oh. Hey. I’m Derek,” the boy said as he sat down. “How come you don’t work for the FBI anymore?”

“I retired,” Dave said with a shrug. “It was retirement or a desk job, and I wasn’t going into that.”

“But don’t retired people have to be old?” he asked, and Dave had to suppress a snort of laughter.

“I’m taking that as a compliment.”

“Right, you three can start eating if you want. I’m going to go get Emily,” Aaron said, and disappeared again. It may not be exactly polite, but there was no sense in letting good food go cold, so he started to eat and watched Derek and Penelope do the same.

“Is it always this difficult getting kids to come eat?” Dave asked in between mouthfuls, and Derek shrugged.

“It was easier when Jason was here, I guess. I don’t know.” He seemed a little defensive, but Dave wasn’t sure he could blame him. It must be weird, losing a parent like this, especially when he must have already lost one before. He wondered why Derek had ended up here, but he knew better than to ask him directly. Perhaps he could talk to Aaron later on, when he’d managed to find some time to have an actual adult conversation for more than a couple of minutes.

A moment later, Aaron reappeared with Emily and JJ in tow. Emily still didn’t look exactly thrilled to have Dave there, but she didn’t openly object to sitting opposite him, at least, and she picked up her knife and fork without complaint.

Though Penelope too had seemed wary at first, she warmed up to him remarkably quickly, to the point where she had decided to tell him what was presumably every thought she’d ever had in an excitable babble, of which he understood about a third, both in between and during mouthfuls. He decided he liked her all the same, though, and did his best to seem as though he was both interested and able to tell what she was saying.

Beside him, Aaron seemed to be having almost no difficulty with that particular endeavor. Which, in Dave’s opinion, was further evidence that he wasn’t actually a human. “That sounds really exciting, Penny. But remember, we don’t talk with our mouths full, even when we’re really excited,” he said kindly, and Penelope mumbled an apology, then another when she realised she’d spoken with her mouth full again.

“So, Derek, how was school?” Aaron asked when Penelope fell silent.

“Dad, it’s Saturday,” Derek said with a raised eyebrow.

Aaron frowned faintly, and Dave picked up on a vague sense of shame in his expression. “Right, yes. Of course.”

It didn’t matter what Aaron said. Dave was going to find a way to keep helping him, even if he didn’t want to accept Dave’s money. It wasn’t as if he was doing much with it anyway, it would go to much better use on hiring the nanny and keeping the kids looked after, but arguing with a lawyer can be more frustrating than arguing with a brick wall and even less productive. 

“That means tomorrow’s Sunday! Daddy, are you gonna take us to the park tomorrow?” JJ asked excitedly.

“We’ll have to see, sweetheart. We have to go shopping tomorrow, but perhaps we can go to the park afterwards,” Aaron said, but there was a weariness to his voice that suggested he would really rather not. He could probably do with spending the whole day sleeping rather than trying to mind five children in a public place.

JJ pouted, but she didn’t argue. She probably knew how pointless it was too, even though she couldn’t be older than five. Instead, she started talking to Penelope and Derek about some kids TV show Dave had never heard of.

This must be what it was like to have a family.

Where had that thought come from? He’d been divorced enough times to know that he wasn’t a family man, even if there was something sweet about these kids. Besides, he was just here as a friend. Well. A sort of friend, sort of colleague of these kid’s missing father, and an acquaintance of their remaining one who just wanted to help out and may or may not want to screw him. Not the most conventional set-up, he’d admit. But they weren’t his family, and they were never going to be. And he was fine with that, he really was. 

Ordinarily, Dave liked to finish off a good meal with a glass of decent alcohol, be it bourbon, whisky, wine or gin. But he had a sneaking suspicion that there wouldn’t be anything even remotely alcoholic available here, so he settled for the coffee Aaron offered him instead. 

Even with all the caffeine, Aaron seemed to be barely able to function. And of course, the kids weren’t going to make functioning easy for him. Spencer had decided to cry again for some unknown reason, and the girls had decided that the best after-dinner activity imaginable was to demolish the living room and reconstruct it as a castle. In all honesty, it didn’t make much difference to the level of mess in the house. Five children seemed to be approximately equivalent to a small bomb when it came to causing chaos. When Dave had excused himself to go to the bathroom, he’d found an obstacle course of abandoned clothes, toys and other possessions between himself and the bathroom door. But the worst part of it was that some of the mess was clearly not the result of any kid. Some of it was Aaron’s doing, and if it wasn’t for all the obligations he had towards his kids, Dave was certain that he would sunk into depression by now. He couldn’t blame him, really. Dumped with all this and not even a goodbye, no idea how he was going to cope… It would be enough to knock anyone back. 

When he returned downstairs, the sight that met him made him sigh deeply. Penelope had evidently grown bored of her sisters’ game and decided that the walls needed some serious redecorating, while JJ and Emily continued their complete demolition. Derek was nowhere to be seen, Spencer was sat on the floor with a TV remote in his mouth, and Aaron had collapsed back in an armchair, snoring faintly, with his half finished coffee spilling onto the floor. 

Nothing about this situation was remotely appealing, and if Dave had had any sense, he would have woken Aaron, left and never come back. But for some unknown reason, he didn’t.

“Okay, all of you, stop,” he said in a raised voice that caught the attention of the girls, at least. He then leant down to pick up Spencer and extract the remote from his mouth, eliciting clearly miserable whining from him. “I’m pretty sure that’s not for babies,” he said firmly, although he knew full well that Spencer would have no idea what he was saying. “Has he got any chew toys? Wait, those are for dogs, er… I don’t know, anything he can put in his mouth and not die?”

“He’s got a weird snake thing,” Emily said hesitantly. “It’s all bendy and chewy.”

“Great. Can you go get it?” he asked, and Emily gave him a short nod before leaving the room in search of the toy. Apparently, her distrust of him didn’t stop her helping her little brother - that was good to know. “Okay, now, Penny. I don’t think your Dad wants you drawing on the walls.”

She looked between her scribbles and Dave, her bottom lip wobbling dangerously. “Pretty?” she asked, and he nodded, but took the crayons off her all the same.

“They’re very pretty. But they don’t go on walls. JJ, can you go get some paper or something for Penny instead?” he asked.

“She has a drawing book! I’ll get that!” JJ said excitedly, and bounced off out of the room just as Emily returned with a twisting, tangled loop that looked to be made of some kind of rubber. 

“Here, Spence,” she said softly as she handed it over. His tiny fists clenched around it, and he cooed happily before biting down on the toy. “Daddy says he’s teething and that’s why he bites stuff so much.”

“Thanks, Emily,” Dave smiled, and Emily gave him the smallest hint of a smile. JJ bounded back into the room with a thick, red sketchbook which she handed over to Penelope.

“I got it, Dave,” she said with a grin, and Dave gave them both a fond smile. Crisis pretty much averted. Yes, there was still the mess, but there was already so much of that around anyway. 

“Okay, so that’s you lot sorted. JJ, Emily, do you two want to give me a hand tidying up a little? You know your way around better than me.”

“Sure!” JJ beamed, and set about picking up the couch cushions they had spread across the room. Emily didn’t seem completely convinced, but shrugged and started to push the furniture of their makeshift castle back to its home, so Dave counted that as a win. He lowered Spencer into a playpen in the corner, then went to search for something to clean up the coffee stains.

As it turned out, the two girls were surprisingly efficient at cleaning. In just ten minutes, the room seemed tidier than when Dave had arrived - although admittedly, that wasn’t saying a lot. “Great job, guys!” he said with an approving smile. They should probably get some kind of reward, that was what you were supposed to do, right? So he pulled out his wallet and extracted two dollar bills, which he handed over to each of them. “You can get yourselves some candy or something, as a thank you for helping,” he said, and they both beamed. 

“Thank you, Dave!” JJ said brightly, and Emily murmured a soft ‘thanks’. “If we do more cleaning can we have more?” she asked, and he laughed. 

“Hmm… I don’t see why not. If you get all the toys and clothes in the hall tidied up, you can each have another dollar, and if you do that playroom too, you’ll get a dollar each for that too, okay?”

True, he might technically be bribing them, but he’d rather think of it as paying them for their work. Even if they’d probably made a lot of the mess in the first place. Not to mention it would keep them out of trouble, let Aaron get some obviously needed sleep and cut down on all the work he had to do. How many birds was that killing with one stone? 

By the time Aaron woke up, Dave had cleaned up the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher, JJ and Emily had tidied up the hall and moved onto the playroom, Spencer had fallen asleep, and Penelope had drawn about eight new pictures, and Derek had been found to be up in his bedroom, with headphones on.

“What have you done to my house and my family?” he asked with a weary and confused smile as he padded into the kitchen. “Spencer is actually asleep, Penelope’s drawing, and everything’s tidy.”

“Apparently kids are real easy to bribe,” Dave grinned. “I got Emily and JJ to clean up some of their mess. Turns out you just gotta offer them a dollar and they’ll pick up some of their junk.”

“Thank you. You’ve done so much, I- I don’t know how I can repay you for all this.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Dave said firmly.

“I want to,” Aaron insisted.

“Alright. Let me hire a babysitter for these kids and come get a drink with me sometime, then. No kids, just quality alcohol and whatever the night will bring.”

Aaron looked like he was about to argue, but miraculously seemed to decide against it. He really did need a break, after all. “I guess one night off couldn’t hurt,” he agreed.


End file.
